The Raptors defeat the Cavaliers, 126-104, in Game 3 and close the series deficit to 2-1.
The Toronto Raptors had one of the most incredible stretches of offensive basketball you will ever see on Thursday, scoring on 19 straight possessions spanning the third and fourth quarters of Game 3 of their first-round series with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The 19 straight scores produced a 47-23 run that propelled the Raptors to a 126-104 victory that only ended when both teams took out their starters.
Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett led the way with 33 points apiece, combining to shoot 23-for-36, including 9-for-13 from 3-point range. The Raptors also got key contributions off the bench from Collin Murray-Boyles (22 points and eight rebounds) and Jamison Battle (14 points on 5-for-5 shooting), and they kept the Cleveland backcourt in check, holding James Harden and Donovan Mitchell to just 33 points total.
Cleveland won the first two games comfortably, but this is now a competitive series, and there will be no first-round sweeps in the Eastern Conference.
Here are some notes, quotes, numbers and film as the Raptors got just their second win in their last 15 games against the top four teams in the East:
1. Battle fuels an unstoppable run
Battle played just 517 minutes in the regular season and had logged less than three minutes in the first two games of this series (he got a DNP in Game 2). He was in the rotation on Thursday, but hadn’t taken a shot in his seven minutes through the first three quarters.
Still, he’d had some success against the Cavs, scoring a season-high 20 points in 15 minutes (all in the second half) on Halloween. He shot 7-for-7 (including 6-for-6 from 3-point range) as the Raptors erased a 10-point, second-half deficit and won by 11.
Cleveland had to be feeling some déjà vu on Thursday. After the Raptors scored six points on their final three possessions of the third quarter, Battle got going in the fourth.
On the Raptors’ first possession of the final period, Battle set a screen for Barnes, rolled to the right block, and drained a short jumper over Evan Mobley.
A few possessions later, Battle did what he does best. With the Raptors running one of the most common sideline out-of-bounds plays around the league, he gained some separation from his defender (Mitchell) by setting a back-screen for Barnes.
Then he curled off a Murray-Boyles screen toward the top of the key. Mitchell got caught in the screen and, because the Cavs were playing off Murray-Boyles, there was nobody else there. Battle drained a wide-open 3 that put the Raptors up for good …
“He’s a shooter,” Mitchell said of Battle. “If you give a guy an open look … It started with a back-screen, where Jaylon [Tyson] and I had a miscommunication and he gets open. And once you see one go in, it goes from there.”
That was the Raptors’ seventh straight score, and they just kept pouring it on. The Cavs kept up for a while, and the score was 96-92 with less than eight minutes left. But then Toronto gained separation with a five-point possession.
First, Barrett snuck behind a ball-watching Harden for a layup and a foul …
And when Barrett missed the ensuing free throw, Murray-Boyles grabbed the long rebound and handed the ball to Battle, who stepped into his third 3-pointer of the fourth quarter.
At that point, the Raptors had scored 24 points on 10 straight possessions. And the onslaught would continue for another nine trips down the floor. You might see anything like it again, especially from a team that’s not known for its potency on offense.
You certainly will see Jamison Battle in this series again. In a little less than 41 total minutes against the Cavs this season, he’s scored 39 points on 13-for-14 shooting, including 10-for-11 from 3-point range. He’s 29-for-79 (37%) from beyond the arc against the Raptors’ 28 other opponents.
Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic called Battle the “ultimate professional, always keeping himself ready. He puts in an enormous amount of work every single day.
“When he stepped on the floor, he was ready for the moment.”
2. Barnes backs ’em down
Barnes had an unusually good shooting night, finishing 11-for-17, including 4-for-6 from outside the paint. But the Cavs also allowed him to back them down into comfortable post position, where he went to work against multiple defenders.
He shot comfortably over Jarrett Allen …
And he later fooled Allen with a Smitty …
Max Strus didn’t have a shot against the bigger Barnes, who also took Harden to the post during the fourth-quarter onslaught.
Barnes made just one of his four shots in the restricted area, but was 6-for-7 elsewhere in the paint. He averaged just 12.8 in his first playoff series four years ago, but is averaging 26.7 in this series, having set new playoff career highs each night.
The Raptors’ 126 points on 95 possessions on Thursday were the most efficient offensive performance for any team in these playoffs thus far. And the Cavs’ adjustments for Game 4 might start with not letting Barnes get so comfortable in the paint.
3. Cleveland can’t connect from the corners
After scoring almost 122 points per 100 possessions over the first two games, the Cavs scored just 104 on 96 (108 per 100) on Thursday. But according to tracking data, their shot quality was higher than it was in Game 2.
One issue was that they missed many good looks from the corners. After layups and dunks, corner 3s are the best shots on the floor, and getting 11 attempts from the corners is good offense. But the Cavs made just one of the 11.
Mitchell was 0-for-3, barely grazing the rim on a wide-open look from the left corner created by Harden early in the second quarter …
Late in the third quarter, Mitchell drew two to the ball and Tyson got a great look from the right corner, but it rimmed in and out.
The Raptors were aggressive defensively on Harden and Mitchell, and on the other side of aggressive defense are open 3-pointers. The Cavs got a lot of the shots they wanted on Thursday, but a lot of them didn’t go down.
4. Win the possession battle, win the game
The Raptors, meanwhile, shot well above their heads on Thursday, and this remains a make-or-miss league.
But the winner of all three games in this series has been the team that has won the possession battle. In Cleveland, the home team totaled nine more shot opportunities than the Raptors. And in Game 3, Toronto had five more than the Cavs.
Another potential byproduct of aggressive defense is turnovers, and the Cavs committed 22 of them on their 96 possessions on Thursday. That rate of 22.9 per 100 was their highest in their 85 games this season.
“We just gotta keep trusting the pass, keep making the right reads,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said afterward. “But I definitely think we had some spacing issues. Even a half a foot in this league matters, especially with the length they have.”
Spacing was definitely an issue on one of Harden’s eight turnovers. Early in the third quarter, he drove against Barrett, but all four of his teammates stood near the baseline, forcing a pass into a crowded paint …
The Raptors also deserve a lot of credit for their defensive activity, veer switches, high hands and the like. They ranked seventh in opponent turnover rate in the regular season.
Toronto will likely apply the same kind of defensive pressure as they look to even the series in Game 4 on Sunday (1 ET, ESPN).
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John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Bluesky.
